The Mill Room — Restaurant in Virginia

I've given The Mill Room at Boar’s Head two opportunities to impress me—and both times it fell short. I’m accustomed to dining in 4- and 5-star restaurants where high standards are not optional but expected. Based strictly on the food experience, I would rate this restaurant no higher than 3 stars.

My first visit was in October, 2024 at 7:30 p.m., a weekday dinner with a friend I wanted to impress. We waited over an hour for our food with little and unconvincing explanation. The restaurant was not full at all. When the food finally arrived, the meat was notably dry and the overall dish forgettable—so much so that I can’t recall what we ordered, only that it was extremely underwhelming. The service didn’t help: the waitstaff lacked polish, barely projected their voices, and instead of elevating the experience, their presence felt intrusive and unrefined.

I returned for a second try on May 25th, 2025, with a different friend. This time, service was prompt, but the same issues persisted. Many of the servers and helpers mumbled, lacked basic etiquette, and didn’t seem trained to deliver a quality dining experience. No managers were visible, and the atmosphere felt uncoordinated. We ordered a meat dish with carrots and mashed potatoes. The meat was cooked as requested (medium rare) and tasted fine, but the sides were disappointing—the carrots were bland and visually completely unappealing, and the mashed potatoes portion was meager.

As for the venison carpaccio we ordered as appetizer—when I couldn’t find it on the plate, I asked the waiter if there’d been a mistake. I was told, no, that was the carpaccio. It wasn’t. I’m familiar with the real thing, and there was no venison in sight—just fennel and cherries trying to pass as something they weren’t. I actually laughed at the cheek of calling that dish “carpaccio.

Overall, the food and service at The Mill Room simply don't match the expectations set by the price point or the venue’s reputation. It was barely acceptable on both occasions. I cannot recommend dining here—especially not if you're expecting a refined...

My stay at the Boar's Head Resort was fantastic but my dining in the The Mill Room was par at best. I say outside on the deck on one of the most beautiful evenings you could ask for in Charlottesville overlooking the pond and mountains. After being seated I watched the waiter pass by my table twice over the course of 10+ minutes talking with tables on either side of me before he finally acknowledged me. He finally asked if I wanted anything to drink which I ordered a glass of wine that came out a few minutes later but never offered or brought out a glass of water. I also ordered the peanut soup and the bacon/ scallops appetizer. (Of note the appetizer is named "Bacon and Scallops" and the plate contained one square of pork belly and one single scallop) For what the dish consisted of, an extended amount of time seemed to pass between ordering and receiving my plate/soup, so much so that I struck up a conversation with the tables next to me and asked about the service to which they both agreed it was quite poor. My glass of wine was delicious, I believe I had the red from the monticello vineyard, the peanut soup was good too (personally would probably be better baked on some chicken), the bacon/scallop dish did taste good and was nicely presented but the food was luke warm at best. Pretty sure it spent a fair amount of time under the heat lamp waiting on the server. I even mentioned it to the manager when she finally came by later in the meal to ask how I was doing and she didn't seem phased by my disappointment. I intended to spend some time on the deck enjoying multiple glasses of wine and an entree but so much time elapsed between receiving my appetizer and when the waiter came back to ask if I wanted anything else I had honestly lost interest. I ordered the goat cheese cake to at least wrap up the night. Overall I went here with the intent of spending a fair amount of time and casually enjoying the night but the service really put...

Reservations were full so we got carry out. We ordered the prime rib special, shepherd’s pie, iron skillet chicken, cedar roasted salmon, and the beelers farm duroc pork chop with the truffle parm french fries, jumbo asparagus, roasted brussels sprouts, cream cheese smashed potatoes and wilted spinach. The pork chop was delicious and so was the ginger creamed corn that came with the salmon. The brussels sprouts and smashed potatoes were also very good. The asparagus and wilted spinach were not worth the money for the way they were cooked. Pretty much seemed like they had a quick steam and no special touches. The prime rib had a few tough parts and was not what I was expecting from prime rib. The salmon portion was tiny and too sweet. The chicken was chicken, not particularly noteworthy but not bad either.

The service was hectic. I tried to call in my order several times to the message service where you can’t place an order even though I had the correct number for that purpose. So then I walked over to the restaurant to place my carry out order in person. Nancy (I believe that was her name) did her best to be helpful but she was very busy and alone. She took our order finally and said we would receive a call when it was ready in about one hour. Then after one hour, I came to check on my order and it turns out it has been taken to the front desk. Luckily the food was still warm but from the look of the fries, it had sat for a bit. I can’t imagine how much longer it would have sat if I hadn’t gone to check on it. For what I paid for the food, I would have liked to have gotten to eat it at the...